Are the two rules contrary to the ‘direct choice’ requirement of ss 7 and 24 of the Constitution?
Sections 7 and 24 of the Constitution require that the Senate and the House of Representatives be composed of senators and members ‘directly chosen by the people’ and thus give effect to a principle of representative government. In previous decisions members of the Court had variously said that direct choice requires ‘free elections’, a ‘free choice’, an ‘informed choice’ and ‘a true choice … a choice made with access to the available alternatives’, and further that this requires that voters have access to information about the candidates among whom they are required to choose. This was the approach adopted in the present case. The appellant argued that the 500 rule and the no overlap rule infringed the direct choice required by ss 7 and 24. This was particularly because party affiliation is an important piece of information used by voters when making a choice between candidates; however, only candidates of registered parties could have their party affiliation printed on the ballot p
